For The Love Of Port

1982 Sandeman Vintage Port

I'm on fire this VT with two TN's. I found this 375ml bottle of 1982 Sandeman, which had some slight signs of past seepage, yet the fill was still well into the neck. Since the price was right, and with the assurance that if the bottle was bad I could take it back, I bought it. Don't see many 1982's in the market place and even fewer TN's on them. I can't recall from memory ever having a 1982 VP before. It wasn't exactly the best of years and from what I've read only a handful did a decent job making a VP. I just decanted it, so I'll be back to put a full TN later tonight after it had a chance to decant and I've finished my evaluation of it. But for now...Interesting in that the capsule is actually more of a 1/2 capsule. I've seen these short capsules on Sandeman's from the 70's and early 80's. Not sure the reasoning behind them, but I'd love to find out. With a lot of careful Ah-So work, the cork came out in one piece. And while fully saturated was still in good shape for an old 1/2 bottle, with the branding still visible. More later

here is the TN:
Finally finished this after slowly sipping on it for the past 8 hours. Although the color got a very tad bit darker, it was still only a dark ruby with some bricking evident. The nose had soft sweet strawberries and bing cherries yet was a bit simple and showing some heat. The palate picked up some body as it got air and a significant amount of heat mellowed a lot. The tannins were fully resolved on a light weight body of simple cranberries. This really never got past its one-dementional self and the hollow back palate was consistant throughout the time I drank this. It ended with a short and simple finish. I'd love to try this from a 750ml bottle to see the difference, as IMO these older 1/2 bottle VP's show a lot more age than their larger brothers. Although I honestly don't think it will be that much better. While I valued the experience in trying it, I won't buy another one unless its at a great price for a daily drinker. 85 points.
08/15/08

I have a couple of '82 Sandeman's in collection and I think I did have one a month ago? I know the '80 is a great port, and '82 is not "as" good. Something is telling me I did have this port and wasn't amazed.

Very similar score too. Will have to revisit my notes.

yes you and Sean did HERE You gave it 90 and Sean 91. of course that is from a full bottle, not a 1/2. I'd be interested in seeing the differnce from a full bottle as I've had some 80 Smith Woodhosue from 375's and 750's that are very different. The halves are much more advanced. Plus this did have some past seepage so don't know how that affected it.

I don't know if I have ever had a 1982 VP that broke the 90 point barrier. Better off sticking with Claret from that vintage!

I had the 1982 Sandeman at release and was extremely disappointed. It was light and very simple. It had no future. The only good thing about it was that it was better than the 1982 Croft which was even worse.

For the 1982 Sandeman, Andy mentioned tasting “soft sweet strawberries”. I tasted strawberries in it as a young wine. I associate the taste of strawberries with simple young fruity wine. Sometimes a good pinot noir will have that taste. But I think the taste of strawberries is a bad thing in vintage port. “Complex dark fruits” is a good thing in vintage port, “simple red fruit” (“soft strawberries”) is a bad thing.

Shawn,
I mainly got the strawberries on the nose. But i would have to agree that many of the younger Ports I've had where strawberries came into play have generally been lighter bodied and not made for old bones. I am scared to see what the Croft is like if it's worse than this :o

Apparently there was a surplus of stock of both the Croft and the Sandeman in the Dutch market. So up to a couple of years ago they were poured quite a lot at fairs. All samples were dull, tired and old IMO. It never persuaded me to buy any of these.

Ronald,
When I first started to get into wine I always wondered why they poured the cheaper stuff (or the not so good stuff) at fairs and the like. Then as I got more into wine I realized that these types of wines/Ports are recieved far better by those who are not serious wine drinkers. Young full bodied and tannic wines/Ports just don't go over well, us nerds being the exception